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Posted on Apr 9, 2010

If you live in Ontario Canada you just invested $15 billion in renewable energy, enough to power about half a million homes. Given the time limits on your contracts with these producers they'll have to get their projects into production in the next twelve months or so. You also will create 20,000 jobs related to this investment. Oh, and this should seal the deal on shutting down every last coal power plant in the province. At this rate we could be doing another few investments and actually putting the facilities into production, creating another 40,000 jobs before a nuclear plant could ever get a shovel in the ground.

Still a little terrified? You should be. Now comes the hard work. Your electricity rates are going to go up in order to pay for this investment. Soooo, time to plan for these increases now before they come into effect over the next few years. Take a look at all your electrical appliances, every last one. Which one uses the most electricity? Which ones are the easiest to replace? Think about switching to LED replacement bulbs for all your lighting as the existing bulbs burn out. Put power bars on all your electrical appliances so you can switch them off rather than have them constantly drain electricity while they are in their standby mode (even when a TV is turned off it still consumes electricity as a means of enabling the remote control to turn it on). By using a power bar you can actually turn it off so there is no slow energy leak from your TVs, stereo, rechargeable phone/toothbrush/printer/laptop. The big consumers of electricity would be your hot water heater (if it is electric), air conditioner, your fridge, and potentially dishwasher/washer/dryer. As these appliances age you'll want to get the most efficient models available. It is quite easy to reduce your consumption by 10-20% in order to offset the increase in your electricity bill. Feeling just slightly less scared?

More good news if you own a house. Still not convinced you'll be able to reduce your consumption enough to offset the increase in the price of electricity? Well then, time to get on the green solar bus yourself. If you've got some equity built up in your house, say $10,000-$30,000, then why not invest it in one of the smartest options around. The time has come to put solar panels on your roof as a part of this Ontario green energy bonanza. Using say $20,000 you borrow on the value of your house that you own, put up say 2 kW of solar photovoltaic panels. You'll produce about 2,800 kW of electricity a year which will pay you 80.2 cents per kW. That'll earn you about $2,245 less your borrowing costs. Bottom line is you'll earn about $14/month after paying for your borrowing costs tax free for about ten years. That should be more than enough to cover the increase in your electricity bill which is expected to be about $5/month. Plus you'll feel good knowing you're helping reduce the amount of pollution created by your electricity consumption, something your kids will thank you for one day.

Still confused? Want to learn what all this is about, how it works, where it came from and why it makes so much sense? Check out this documentary video that captures the moments when Ontario politicians, namely George Smitherman, newly minted Energy Minister for Ontario, was introduced to Hermann Scheer, the father of the solar revolution and solar economics.